Off To Austria - Day 3

We woke up early Friday morning to leave to Salzburg, Austria. We hoped to get to Salzburg in time to catch the 2:00 Sound of Music tour; it was a rainy morning which slowed our progress. There were times when the rain was coming down so hard that the wipers wouldn’t go fast enough. There was also a stretch of the road that was under construction that caused us a lengthy delay. There were some stretches along the way where we could make up time. The rain would stop and we had some nice straight roads where we could hit the cruising speed of 118. No, I didn’t stay at that speed for long but, I did enjoy not worrying about trying to stay below 80 miles an hour. I would say 100 is a comfortable speed for me. Once we hit Munich we began our search for an Esso gas station, as we had to fill up and they were the only ones that would take our gas coupons. We stopped at a gas station to ask them where an Esso was, and they didn’t know. We did have a bathroom break there and I got to see a new type of toilet. The seat of the toilet rotates so that it can be sanitized. Marta didn’t use the restrooms so I video taped it for her to watch…so now you all can watch it to. It was a pretty cool concept!

The drive along the border in the Alps was breathtaking. It was so beautiful and all we wanted were some great pictures. I was driving and so everyone else, mainly Heather tried to capture the picturesque surrounding as we flew down the interstate. It was quite humorous as cameras have that lag time between pressing the button and capturing the picture. So, we had many pictures of trees, telephone polls etc instead of the meadows and mountains. Heather got quite good at saying, “I can do better!”

It was so nice to have Ursula, James’s GPS, with us to give us directions. This was much needed as the city of Salzburg isn’t easy to navigate through. We found ourselves at the Sound of Music tour location about an hour after the last tour. I did have some difficulty navigating into the parking lot, turned down a one way street the wrong way and tried to go into the parking lot the wrong way. After figuring out the parking lot we went to secure our tickets for the next morning. We negotiated a better price for our tickets by asking if they were the cheapest place to buy. He gave us a student discount and then Kristen didn’t have enough money so he knocked another Euro off. I think that is what happened.

The guy spoke English quite well; I on the other hand was having some difficulty. Something about reading signs in a foreign language messed me up. They were going to pick us up at the hotel in the morning and I couldn’t remember where we were staying…as we had not checked in yet. I knew it was the Marriott so I so the Residence. This of course caused great confusion as every town has a Residence which is where the Royalty stays. Finally, he said is it the Renaissance? Which that rang a bell and I said “Yes, that is where we are staying. I am sorry; English is not my first language.” This of course made everyone laugh…but, I think he was a bit confused as if I was serious or joking. It was pretty funny.

That afternoon we went and found Mozart’s home that he was born in. We went into the museum there and I was a little disappointed with the museum. We walked across the river and saw where he lived when he was older. It was fairly cold outside and was raining off and on. We decided to go back to the old city and find something to eat. We ate at a spaghetti place. They sat us right by the smoking area and gave us all a headache. When we were done eating we decided to call it a day and went back to the hotel.